Phonics provides the essential tools for reading and spelling words. Without a strong foundation in phonics, children may struggle to recognize words, making reading slow and frustrating. Here’s why phonics is so important:
Builds Decoding Skills: Phonics gives children the skills to decode or “sound out” unfamiliar words, which is crucial for early reading success (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000).
Promotes Reading Fluency: When children can quickly recognize and sound out words, they read more smoothly, allowing them to focus on comprehension rather than word recognition.
Supports Spelling and Writing: Phonics helps children understand letter-sound relationships, which is essential for spelling and writing.
Boosts Reading Confidence: With phonics, children can approach new words with confidence, knowing they have strategies to tackle them.
How to Develop Phonics Skills in Young Learners
Phonics doesn’t have to be tedious nor boring! Here are some engaging and effective activities to help young learners develop phonics skills. (Links of some of them are attached as well).
Teach Letter Sounds Systematically
Introduce letter sounds in a structured, logical sequence, starting with the most common sounds and moving to more complex ones.
Start with Simple Sounds: Begin with single letter sounds like “m,” “a,” and “t.” Once children are comfortable, you can progress to blends (e.g., “bl” or “st”) and digraphs (e.g., “sh,” “ch”) (Ehri, 2005).
Practice Daily: Make time each day for phonics practice. Short, frequent sessions help children remember sounds and practice them in various contexts. Use flashcards or letter charts to make it interactive and fun.
Use Phonics Games and Activities
Games make phonics practice enjoyable and help reinforce letter-sound connections in a fun way. Depending on your situation, geography and economical implications, you can use online games or adapt them into face-to-face activities inside the classroom.
Sound Matching Games: Use cards with letters or pictures of items that start with specific sounds. Children can match the sounds to the correct letters or group pictures by the initial sound, like “s” for “sun” and “snake.” Apps like Duck Duck Moose Reading or Montesori - Learn to Read and web games like this are helpful, free and a good starting point for kids.
Phonics Bingo: Create Bingo cards with letters or word families. Call out sounds or simple words, and have children cover the matching letter or sound on their card. This game makes phonics practice interactive and enjoyable.
Practice Blending Sounds to Make Words
Blending involves putting sounds together to form words, a crucial skill for reading.
Sound Boxes: Use a set of sound boxes or tiles for children to slide letters together to form words. For example, place “c,” “a,” and “t” in separate boxes and have children slide them together to make “cat.” This visual exercise reinforces the idea of blending sounds into a whole word (NICHD, 2000).
Stretch and Blend: Say a word slowly, stretching out each sound (like “ssss-aaaa-nnn” for “sun”). Have children say the sounds back and then blend them together to say the whole word. This helps them hear how sounds combine.
Introduce Word Families and Rhyming
Learning word families and rhyming words helps children recognize patterns and understand that words share similar sounds.
Word Family Charts: Introduce word families like “-at” (cat, bat, hat) or “-og” (dog, log, fog). Make a chart or poster with words from each family and practice reading them together. Seeing patterns helps children learn sounds more efficiently (Treiman, 1998).
Rhyming Games: Play rhyming games like “I Spy” using words in the same family. For example, say, “I spy something that rhymes with ‘hat’,” and see if they can find an object that fits. Rhyming reinforces phonics by building awareness of sound patterns.
Use Multi-Sensory Phonics Activities
Using multiple senses—such as sight, touch, and sound—can help reinforce phonics concepts. When working with children, activating their different senses, sensory and motor systems is important to create meaningful connections between what they receive and produce.
Sand or Salt Tray Writing: Have children trace letters or words in a sand or salt tray. They’ll practice forming the letters while saying the sounds, engaging their sense of touch, sight, and hearing.
Magnetic Letters: Provide magnetic letters for children to manipulate and build words. They can experiment with blending sounds or creating word families. This hands-on approach is both fun and effective for phonics learning.
Read Decodable Books Together
Decodable books contain words that follow phonics rules, making them ideal for practicing reading skills.
Start Simple: Begin with decodable books that feature words with simple sounds and progress to books with more complex phonics patterns. Decodable books allow children to practice their phonics knowledge in a real reading context (Ehri, 2005).
Practice High-Frequency Words: Many decodable books also include common “sight words” (like “the,” “and,” “is”) that children need to recognize by sight. Practicing these words alongside phonics improves overall reading fluency.
Encourage Phonics Practice at Home
Involve parents and caregivers in phonics practice to reinforce skills outside of the classroom. Online activities (and flipped classroom approaches) can be highly rewarding in this context.
Send Home Phonics Cards: Provide simple phonics cards with sounds and letters for children to practice at home with their families. Include instructions or game ideas for parents to use.
Sound Hunts: Suggest a “sound hunt” at home, where children look for objects or items that begin with a particular sound. For example, a hunt for the “b” sound might lead them to find a book, a ball, or a bag. This makes phonics practice practical and enjoyable.
References
- Ehri, L. C. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings, and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(2), 167–188.
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. NIH Publication No. 00-4769.
- Treiman, R. (1998). Why spelling? The benefits of incorporating spelling into beginning reading instruction. Learning to Spell, 289-298.
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